Just found this great article on OSU Softball

Whoa, I missed this ESPN article on OSU Softball and it's rise on the national scene. Great profile of the team and has to be an amazing recruiting tool for Kirk Walker.

ESPN.com - NCAA - Hays: McGowan missing gem on Oregon State's roster

The main reason I chose Oregon State was that I loved it when I took my trip here," McGowan said about her choice. "The team was amazing, and the town seemed like a great place to spend four years. And it turns out I was right."

[...]

Despite not having any of the 12 best individual batting averages among Pac-10 players, the Beavers are the conference's best hitting team with a .313 collective average. And they aren't all singles. Only UCLA and Arizona State have more home runs, and only Washington has more doubles.

Paced most of the season by 5-foot-1 sparkplug Mia Longfellow (hitting .364 with 15 extra-base hits), the Beavers have survived the typically tough transition to a steady diet of Pac-10 pitching thanks in large part to McGowan's pitching and sophomore Cambria Miranda's hitting.

As a freshman, Miranda led the team with a .324 average last spring, but that number hid a .175 average in conference play. But like any great hitter, Miranda made adjustments and is hitting .361 with five home runs in 11 conference games this season.

[...]

Softball country is what you make of it.

And these days, the Beavers have made quite a bit of it in Corvallis.

The softball team has been good for a long time (10 years or so?), but until the last two years they have yet to really challenge for a top spot in the nation let alone Pac-10. Now they are starting to do that. If they can get into the College World Series for softball this year, they could become the next Pac-10 team to win a National Championship. Now that would be cool.